Wednesday, November 19, 2014

For
everybody who is seeking out cigarette smoking through the near by service
station or even smoke save next community, it is able to significantly continue
to set up an extensive hole in your own budget. What a few of those people who
light are starting to understand is no matter whether you will be tobacco Royal
Club, R1 or Dunhill it is extremely available to acquire affordable-costed
cigarettes via the internet.

Currently you might just be asking yourself how
much the increases are of receiving your smoke cigarettes foods on the web?
Saving money not surprisingly is actually a sizeable benefit when you are
looking at a web dealer with your most desirable type of cigarette. Despite the
fact that looking around thru any internet tobacco browse on the internet, you
will likely realize that a lot of achieve their cigarette smoking from a much
cheaper price. Once you seem even further, you can realize that inspite of
travelling did the trick as the costs that the confirmed web based e cigarette
retail store will offer you with is more than likely to become more advanced
than the costs in your local area.

Quite a few web sites give no price tag
distribution on the goods, which besides that increases your financial savings.
Just one more tremendous advantage to purchasing your ciggie things on-line is
you can discover a kind of cigarettes which has by no means been or no longer is
provided in your community. As an example, claim that there is certainly a
restricted release type of Gauloises tobacco you loved using cigarettes.

Unfortunately, the retailers on your district ended up only structured to own
that exact particular cigarettes for a particular time period. So if you moved
searching for cheap smokes using the web in a sales price it really is
attainable that you may run across an internet shop that carries that cigarette
smoking that you simply can’t get in your town again. That you are also much
more likely as being presented an agreement when you are buying less expensive
costs of smoke merchandise internet. Although a good price of regional retail
stores will give you a buy a number of provides purchase one load of tobacco
absolutely free sorts of offer you there are several retailers on the internet
that give even much better bargains like the cabability to generate credit
standing with each of your obtains which you might implement for long run paying
for with that particular web site.

Now there are lots of tobacco tobacco USers
that may be asking yourself when it is a legitimate training purchasing and then
sell cigarettes via the internet. The response to this remarkably vital question
for you is you bet its lawful for retail outlets selling cigarettes on the web
just because it is official for people to obtain them. An experienced on the net
merchant that sells expense chop smokes should have adult settings on their own
website pages plus a disclaimer if creating a purchase for cigarette using their
company webpage the consumer will have to agree to they are of authorized years
to buy this specific style of piece.

Economical cigarettes from The European
union are extremely becoming brought in into Northern The US and especially into
United States of America. Should you look closely into typical instances of
imports it gets more clear to a single as well as that a great number of are
list imports than bulk consignments of company quantities. It has countless
intriguing testimonies covered among. In the first place, this demonstrates the
extreme tax bill hike on smoking in the USA. The taxation improve has long been
so steep that, let alone the manufacturers and wholesale vendors all over the
nation, tiny town tobacco smoking sites marketing retail industry to tobacco
USers are dropping into lowering thanks to deficiency of business enterprise.

Apparently, routine tobacco USers aren’t in the position to purchase their daily
or month to month keep at these high prices. Sobranie brand name is one of hit
coming from all; Individual who smokes George Karelias and Sons is right now
currently being catered to by on the web tobacco smoking boutiques which are in
physical form positioned mostly in Eastern European countries and certain in
Natural American citizen areas which within the law take pleasure in lower or no
taxes on cigarettes. So, the internet suppliers at the moment are the cause idea
for cheap Bond cigarettes. Unsurprisingly, these retail stores and even the
forex traders have innovatively been hitting the tobacco cigarette starved
nations and uniquely the US. The essential bonus they like is considered the
severe taxes difference between their resource along with the US market.

Nevertheless Countries in Europe has become commonly developing and exporting
cheap smoking to US and the other globe, more recent hike in tax fees in Moreern
The European countries in the high heels of people has converted the main
objective on Eastern Europe. Big cigarette smoking suppliers and cheaper
cigarette smoking investors have begun working out of this piece with world wide
vision. But wait, how accomplishes this all connect with the perfect smoke
enthusiast? The standard tobacco smoker is the one that apparently advantages of
pretty much everything. Let’s learn how discounted R1 cigarettes from the
marketers will surely cost all-around every carton which incorporates all
property taxes and postage and packing. You might not have picked up a carton of
your treasured Parliament cigarettes’ carton with this pace even just in the pre
income tax hike time. You will find a small take listed here; you might be
important to compensate unique responsibility independently, this may not be
part of the price. You can find one more angle to the current inexpensive
cigarettes business enterprise.

Ever since the taxes hike, not merely ciggie
forex traders, each general marketers additionally, the minor merchants but also
the e cigarette market place labors have struggled with career failures with the
mass. Cig sector employment have migrated out from United States and into The
European countries; now it offers additional is migrated from that point to
Eastern European countries. Eastern Countries in Europe could be the found
hotspot of substantial US and Oriental cigarette providers that will be creating
greenery of enormous dimensions in incredible rates. This occurrence is kindled
by a second a lesser amount of very clear but vital issue which both on-line
cigarette smoking shop proprietors and vendors USed in their own fascination.
Labor fee and incomes in Eastern European countries is noticeably low-priced as
compared to Davidoffern a part of the country, let alone US. Internet low cost
tobacco for sale’ is effecting principal economical coverage variations and
alterations. The cigarette importing nations are burning off large taxation
profits which they would have amassed suffered from the market not shifted
center away from US. Camel, which carries about 85Percent of earth cigs,
currently is staying produced in Eastern European countries. So, when you
purchase tobacco when, you understand where you can get low cost Superkings
cigs! Task free decreased-valued cigarettes are incredibly uncomplicated to buy
from the web based stores.

Obtaining cigarettes in the level of comfort of the
home is best selling point of these low cost via the internet smoking. More,
Marlboro, Wall Street, Sobranie, Capri, Magna and Chesterfield are one of the
most adored famous brands of cigarettes that happens to be effortlessly offered
via the internet ordering. You can certainly invest in reduced-charged
cigarettes via the internet, irrespective of how widely USed or pricey, they
might are generally. The internet retailing web pages give consumers a way to
purchase, your cost cigarettes and also generic labels. Compared with the
ordinary retail shops, the web based gift buying web-sites rarely exhaust your
stock options. On this, there can be no imposing tax bill fees or prices.

Almost
all the cigarette smoking web based are low priced and now have no tax bill or
task. To purchase responsibility 100 % free reduced-selling price smoking,
searching should be done in the beginning internet to find the best web site. An
absolutely free pre enrollment create will have to be filled in some internet
sites so that they can retailer products. Important data with regard to the
clients really should be supplied in your subscription shape which includes
identity, vacation spot, contact number and mail identification to pay for
responsibility no cost cheaper cigarette.

These data is needed regardless if the
guy determines to acquire the merchandise or otherwise not. Records simply being
offered should be considered maintained particular one of the internet sites
being the respect clients. As soon as the on-line subscription is correctly
completed, anybody can remain interested in the wanted and thus picking out it
for getting it within a more affordable. The crucial portion people require to
complete for you to invest in obligation cost-free cheap tobacco is in order
that they come with a lower total. Totally different web sites should also be
checked so that they can verify that they come with reasonable price reduction
deals. Most marked down supply ones all should be opted. The general currency
exchange, US dollars have to be fee based if you want to pay for very affordable
smoking on the internet. Payment can be done through possibly credit greeting
card or bank card from a total price equal to the total amount in dollars. For
Individuals that make expenses via notes, they really are effortlessly unknown purchasers have the advantage of ordering tobacco that
are not imported to their United States. It can be easy to invest in Duty Free
Low-cost Tobacco cigarettes by means of traditional bank assessments, but charge
cards are chosen as they are faster to method.

The other comfort of obtaining
over the internet would be the fact the Individual can call off an order, if the
Individual would like to. Many different web sites offer you a range of time
boundaries for cancellation. Cancellation will have to be carried out during
twenty four hours of choosing in many websites.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Marlboro cigarettes is number one in the international tobacco market. Marlboro cigarettes quality smoking brand doesn’t raise any doubts and is not subjected to any comparison. Marlboro cigarettes is considered to be the most demanded tobacco product.

Marlboro Cigarettes is of high standing cigarette brand nowadays. Originally it was set forth in 1847 at the London market but soon repositioned in the US and advertised as lady’s cigarettes. That marketing policy failed in a while and Philip Morris focused the Marlboro advertising campaign to male audience and didn’t lose. It became the most spread smoking item among the sterner sex. Who hasn’t heard of Marlboro cowboy, who became identifying sign and well-liked symbol of Marlboro Cigarettes?

Actually Marlboro cigarettes were directed to women. Soon after the brand was manufactured Philip Morris moved to the US and the brand began its road to success under the bright slogan - "Mild as May". Already in 1920-s Marlboro achieved the leading positions at the tobacco market and mostly due to the fact that the choice of female cigarettes at that time was at a low level.

Soon after that the brand disappeared from the market. But after the World War II Marlboro cigarettes appeared again in sale.

This time they were oriented to male smokers and had a beneficial difference from other brands of that time: Marlboro cigarettes had a filter and it also attracted attention to this brand. Besides their taste presented a combination of mildness and brutality, and it was really appreciated by smokers.

Philip Morris, the procreator of these cigarettes, started its enduring advertising parade all over the world. The red cigarette pack was advertised by all possible means starting with billboards, TV ads, till the pages of famous magazines and newspapers.

The continuous inquiry of this smoking tobacco on the world tobacco market is a living proof of the colossal success of these ads.

The successful advertisement was one more step to the promoting of Marlboro brand at the market. A golden standard of these cigarettes was a handsome man who symbolized the strength and was a sign of a real man. It has become an outstanding sign of that time and contributed to the popularity of the cigarettes. Thus, in 1970-s Marlboro was recognized the most sold brand in the Unites States of America. At the same time it became famous all over the world.

Advertising is one thing; still there is another equally important ground of such enormous demands of Marlboro trademark. It is its elite tobacco, irreproachable flavor and inimitable aroma. Namely this attracts so many smokers and the great number of them has selected Marlboro Cigarettes as the favorite cig brand that totally dashes their personality and such qualities as gallantry, manliness, fortitude and other qualities peculiar to a true man. Notwithstanding the fact that Marlboro is an expensive smoking tobacco and this is reasonable, still you can find this product at cut-price in our online discount cigarette shop. You should not overpay for the product which you can purchase it a much lower price at our online cigarettes store. Allocate your expenses rationally due to us.

Nowadays Marlboro cigarettes continue to be the brand known to millions of smokers around the world. The brand offers its users a wide range of tastes, styles and flavors. In spite of its great popularity Marlboro brand keeps developing creating new features and aromas at any taste.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Alongside with the opinion that substances from cigarettes can cause various complications to those who suffer from asthma or can provoke allergies there appeared a new research that suggests quite the opposite. In particular it suggests that cigarette smoke can help people who suffer from allergies.

The leader of the study, Neil Thomson, a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology, a leading expert in the field of respiratory medicine, takes as a basis the experiments held on mice mast cells. The conclusion is really surprising: the experiment shows that cigarette smoke stops the development of mast cells which respond for the appearance of various types of allergies.

Moreover the study demonstrates that cigarette smoke helps to prevent the release of proteins which cause inflammation in response to allergens without influencing other mast cell functions. The conclusion was made by the researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

The study was based on the mast cells of mice. However the researches are almost sure that the same reaction will take place with humans. Now the new results have been thoroughly analyzed to make more clear conclusions concerning the new discovery. The science does not stand on the same place. If earlier cigarette smoke was associated only with harmful effects on health nowadays it is incorrect to state that smoking is a harmful habit. Not everything is so categorically. However the time will show if the new discovery of cigarette smoke is true.

Cigarette smoke allergy: Cigarette smoke allergy refers to an adverse reaction by the body to cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke allergy is not considered a true allergy but a sensitivity as the smoke is an irritant rather than an allergen. People with other allergies tend to be more sensitive to cigarette smoke. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Cigarette smoke allergy is available below.

Cigarettes contain 4,000 chemicals, of which 69 are cancer-causing agents that irritate the throat, airways and lungs. These chemicals and noxious particles cause inflammation of the airways leading to the lungs, as well as an influx of immune cells to the airways. Neutrophils, mast cells, CD8+ T cells and macrophages are immune cells that migrate to the walls and space within the airways, as well as the lungs, during an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke. These immune cells initiate and perpetuate the immune response by causing the release of histamine and other immune mediators into the airways. The release of histamine results in the signs and symptoms associated with an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke.

Vocal hoarseness, wheezing and breathing difficulties are common symptoms of an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke. Cigarettes contains thousands of compounds, tar and reactive oxygen species that irritate the throat and airway passages. Coughing and hoarseness of the vocal chords are allergic symptoms caused by cigarette smoke, notes the National Institute of Environmental Health. The release of histamine into the upper respiratory tract causes the throat and upper respiratory tract to swell and close up in severe cases. Swelling of the upper respiratory tract increases the resistance to airflow and impairs the movement of oxygen into the lungs and carbon dioxide out the body. This results in wheezing, tightening of the chest and breathing difficulties.

Smoking cigarettes causes inflammation, irritation and swelling of the nasal passages. Histamine is released into the nasal passage, resulting in symptoms such as sneezing, itching of the eyes, post-nasal drip and a runny and stuffy nose due to the congestion and blockage. These symptoms are a common immunologic response to the chemicals present in cigarettes. There is no specific cure for nasal irritation or congestion; thus, the best treatment option is to avoid smoking cigarettes or secondhand smoke.

The children and spouses of smokers have an increased risk of developing asthma and respiratory infections. Cigarette smoke also increases the risk of an allergic reaction in individuals with asthma, bronchitis and allergic rhinitis. The National Institute of Environmental Health Science advises nonsmokers to avoid being in closed spaces, such as an elevator or a car, with a smoker. Secondhand smoke is just as dangerous as firsthand smoke, and, thus, nonsmokers in close quarters with smokers are at an increased risk of developing respiratory allergic reactions.

Because of
the escalating income tax on tobacco, folks have was required to search in
another place apart from their neighborhood convenience hold to get premium
manufacturers of cigarettes. Nevertheless these high quality famous brands among
others are typical on the net at markdown costs. Routinely sites on the web will
offer these sort of types as Dunhill, Monte Carlo, Marlboro, Superkings,
Marlboro and many more. The Countries in Europe are widely known to have
affordable cigarette. The labels they will provide and a lot more are available
online on a number of websites at great deals.

The internet merchants who offer
for sale cigarettes at great deals often are buying them from countries which
have reduced taxes on cigarettes. As a consequence, they will distribute these
cigarette at cheaper pricing. These online outlets are only serious about
delivering superior quality items for their prospect mainly because they want
them to get consistent clientele while their industry. Consequently, you aren’t
having any probability obtaining cigarettes on the web at the best prices.
Pretty much, there are only two techniques to obtain price reduction cigs. The
initial one is to shop for originating from a inexpensive smoking browse and
also the following is to purchase them web based.

Many reasons exist for to
purchase cigarette web based. Along with the highly developed technological
advances this really is available today to almost everyone, you can order the
best make of cigarette smoking right from enhanced comfort of your personal
property by just clicking on a mouse. You will no longer need to wait in line
and desire that your particular favored kind of smoking isn’t sold out. So much
is required is if you want to select the product cigarette that you like to own
and once the business has brought your payment they are sent precisely to your
house. In the event you buy your cigarette smoking internet, you will definitely
accept first class assistance at an affordable price. When you acquire
cigarettes on the net, you can save nearly a third in excess of paying for them
at a discount shop.

Even though you may put in the cost of shipping the prices
that you will discover on the internet will be substantially less in comparison
to the prices as part of your hometown inexpensive cigarette smoke retail
outlet. They should also likely possess the companies of cigarettes who has is
not or has by no means been taken in your city. You aren’t tied to the
brandnames in the event you choose cigarette smoking over the internet. Online
tobacco smoke boutiques give you the finest makes of cigarette smoking that are
available from around the globe for instance Golden Gate, West, Marlboro,
Parliament, Wall Street and a lot more. As they are obligation and tax bill free
they are around for anyone to pay for at discounted percentage rates. Think
about buying your tobacco over the internet in lieu of making payment on the
pricing that ease retail stores present.

You are going to preserve lots of money
if you purchase your cigarettes on amongst the various web-sites that give
smoking available for sale on the net. One can find general, obligation
absolutely free in another country and Indigenous Us online websites that offer
cigarettes at lowered costs. A lot of identical to the experienced merchants in
the proximity of borders or perhaps in airport terminals, task complimentary
website pages can import smoking and not have to pay for the customary
responsibility.

They can help you save cash two solutions. The very first is by
helping you save the job that may raise the price tag on the cigarettes about
what it is across the nation, and by choosing cigarette smoking from nations
around the world where by labor is inexpensive. But, you need to know that the
quality of cigarettes that could come from overseas can differ.

This is also
true of Native Us citizen web pages which promote cigarettes using their company
unique tribal lands. They will be a further resource for taxes no cost cigarette
smoking. Ever since every tribe’s area is recognized as a sovereign United
States the income tax legislation that relate to a place that has been not with
their property don’t impact them. They will easily sell the exact same
cigarettes from a significantly discounted price given that they don’t have to
pay or cost the income taxes over the cigarette smoking.

There exists yet
another way you can get a better price as you invest in purchase tobacco web
based and that is via the company you go for. Most light up retail outlets which
might be over the internet fumes provide you with cigarettes in three categories
such as significance general makes and superior brands like Gauloises, Marlboro
and State Express. You could save a whole lot more bucks should you buy these
valuation makes. Substantially identical to fragrances which have been copycats,
a lot of these companies give a product that is lower in expense product or
service which will certainly correspond to reasonably limited trademark.

The
only issue with the purchase of a significance brand of cigarette is that you
can’t merely purchase one prepare to decide if you like them or not. Internet
websites that offer cigarette smoking web based will simply deliver a complete
minimum of a particular carton of cigarettes. The fact is that if you decide on
multiple carton you will definitely get also a sizeable lower price. usually
there are some internet websites that sell off a carton of flavor cigarettes
which is actually carton including a wrap every one of fifteen price types who
are diverse. It is a sensible way to figure out which line of valuation model of
cigarettes you actually like.

If you prefer really good smoke, then its time for
you to give thought to buying it from internet. Tobacco cigarette smokers who
have the experience of get caught up the conventional trend will most likely
like the internet investing in and may also get a great deal more benefits on
the net. So let US see, what benefits you can possibly get from via the internet
tobacco. You can get a lot more wide range – One of the most clear advantages is
that you could fit hands on many different cigarette smoking that seldom you
will get from any supermarkets. When smokers desire to invest in smoking for
private USe, they consistently have a preference for to pick from selections. In
some cases they decide to buy different manufacturer kind, just for something
different. As a consequence, using number is a lot more best suited those of you
that often prefer for something different. It truly is very simple – compared
with ordering from supermarkets, via the internet acquire is much simpler and
stress-free. Getting in groceries will take a long time, a result of the queues
to reverse. Time devoted upholster up could possibly be a large amount of to
face to acquire a swift cigarette smoke.

For this reason, purchasing on line
cigarettes is much more basic, due to the fact you may not really have to put it
off inside crowed line. You can certainly flick through web stores which enable
it to destination your arrangement by having a mouse click. Expense trim price –
another benefit is that you could locate these at much cheaper amount compared
to the grocery stores. Most web shop sell off imprinted cigarettes at lower
price total price for advertising purposes. It is easy to choose people web
sites and may also destination your own brand at more affordable price tag.
Properly, basically, these are typically lots of advantages paying for tobacco
over the internet. You not only will make a decision to select from a wide
selection but will also are able to find many via the internet their
distributors to possess cigarettes at more cost-effective fee. So the very next
time you love to get cigarettes, be sure you find a respected retailer.

Note
that, quite a few suppliers cheat many people marketing repeat brands. That is
why check whether the stow may be a registered or not. Some internet websites
also deception customers by stealing their visa card facts. So colleague, these
are the basic advantages of shopping for cigarettes online. Should you be now
convened to give your consider for online buying, then do not forget to find the
tips and hints because we brought up earlier on the subject of finding a highly
regarded web store. You can find a great deal of ease you will get when choosing
goods on-line instead of just rushing to grocery store or shops locally. It
minimizes sufficient time you should pay out as well as it truly is reachable
round the clock and a week in one week. This is why for your acceptance of
buying cheap cigarette smoking with these areas. So as to make absolutely sure
that you are on the appropriate settings, make sure you figure out how to buy
cigarette web based.

Result in the actions the best guide to acquiring a prudent
get. Think about the adhering to procedures. The heart and soul of on line smoke
purchasing starts with your search for your web site in which you wish to work
with. You have to make positive that the body has established a good reputation
within the industry. In connection with this, do not think of receiving price
cut cigarette smoking however. A lot more compared to deals you will definately
get, to invest in cigarette on-line would mean exchanging with people you trust.
The business enterprise deal is not going to prosper unless of course you
probably know how to pick out your company. Testing in picking is frustrated if
you desire to save money on efforts and price tag. Deciding on the best service
provider to help you whenever you pay for cigarettes on the internet will bring
you to your next methods of this process.

Research the web pages of this
marketing expert to check out if you achieve reduction cigarette. Beside this
point, review the emblem titles made available from the organization. Decide if
your preferred name brand is on the catalog. Tremendous system choices contain
Parliament, Kool and R1. Evaluate the rates and repayment systems accessible to
you. If you think you are unable to conform to the paying for scheme offered by
the main page you have preferred to invest in cigarettes on the internet, then
it is worthy of to discover an alternative website. If it is your first time for
you to check out the webpage to generate your low cost cigarettes, this task is
crucial. Who understands, even when you have to spend some time checking out an
alternative page, you may well be assigned a less expensive alternative than the
first one? Consider this part being an pleasurable part of the complete system.

Always have the time to see all the other qualities incorporated once you shop
for cigarettes on the net. Apart from name brand, pricing and monthly payment
techniques, you can also give some thought to checking on transport allegations
as well as the time period of time to be given your cigarettes. This is a good
measure to find out no matter whether you have gotten cheap cigarettes or not.
If once performing most of these actions and you have not decided on the net
vendor to undertake your exchange with, then it is best to confer with other
Individuals.

Your friends and family or relatives is going to be of big help. It
may take time for you to discover the ideal professional to address when you buy
smoking over the internet. Even so, this absolutely should not deter you. As
primary timers, these incidences are but regular. Considering that, you like to
make certain you obtain the reduction cigarettes you are looking for. Dedicate a
long time should you prefer a intelligent obtain. Upon getting decided the ideal
company, the next expenses may well be more hassle-free on your part.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Factory will cease to exist after 60 years of work, about 180 workers will remain unemployed. Company transfers its factory in South Korea.

The company explained its decision: " because of extremely tough regulatory rules on trafficking tobacco products, existing in Australia. In particular, in 2012 Australia passed a law according to which all tobacco manufacturers are required to remove from cigarette packs any colored logos, leaving only the graphic warnings of the health risks.

Cigarette sales in Australia dropped significantly in recent years, because Australians smoking less. At the same time, was reduced the export of tobacco products from this factory, because the safety requirements of this cigarettes, which were imposed by Australian regulators, don't correspond to the preferences of consumers in other countries. As a result, the factory until now worked by less than half of its capacity. All attempts to increase sales in recent years have been unsuccessful.

Philip Morris International Inc. is the leading international tobacco company, with seven of the world’s top 15 brands including the number one cigarette brand worldwide. PMI’s products are sold in more than 180 markets. In 2013, the company held an estimated 15.7% share of the total international cigarette market outside of the U.S., or 28.2% excluding the People’s Republic of China and the U.S.

JOHN A. BYRNE, cover story:

The man uttering these words seems as sincere as a pastor in the pulpit on a Sunday morning. Yet his many critics think of him and his corporation as a villain, a beast, even the devil incarnate. The speaker, remarkably, is Geoffrey C. Bible, chairman and chief executive of Philip Morris Cos. He oversees the world's largest tobacco company, arguably the most reviled corporation in America.

In the U.S., where more than 400,000 people die annually from smoking-related diseases, it could be said that Bible's company, with its 50% market share, is to blame for the often agonizing deaths of some 200,000 smokers a year. So how can Bible, of all people, speak so passionately about an individual's obligation to society?

That, of course, is a dilemma that each of Philip Morris' 144,000 employees must wrestle with. Rarely has an industry or a corporation been so deeply vilified and so thoroughly discredited as Big Tobacco and its biggest player, Philip Morris. Few employees have escaped the loathing heaped on their company. Almost all have faced The Question, the inevitable inquiry laced with accusation that sooner or later always gets asked-at the PTA, a dinner party, or Little League: ''How can you work for a company that kills people?''

It's not a question that is easily answered. Execs at Philip Morris tend to frame their response in self-righteous, almost combative terms. Cigarettes, they will tell you, are lawful products that any adult should have the right to buy. It is a matter of freedom of choice, no different from the right to own a handgun, drink a martini, or eat a Big Mac. But probe a little deeper and it becomes clear that their attitudes are far more complex and that many at Philip Morris make a difficult peace with the company's mission.

Indeed, Philip Morris is a company fraught with contradictions. In the past year, it has spent $100 million to persuade kids not to smoke. By the end of this year, it will have paid nearly $8.5 billion to reimburse states for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses. But visit the company's New York corporate headquarters, where 8 of the top 12 executives are smokers, and it's clear that tobacco infuses the entire culture. Philip Morris received the only exemption to New York City's sweeping ban on smoking in the workplace. Ashtrays are built into the granite walls outside the elevator bank at every floor and also hang above the urinals in the men's rooms. Conference tables hold wooden boxes filled with Philip Morris cigarettes, and the scent of tobacco lingers in the broad, carpeted halls.

The contradictions extend to the company's uneasy relations with the outside world. Although widely despised, Philip Morris is one of the world's most generous corporations, annually contributing $60 million in cash and $15 million in food to fight hunger and domestic violence and to support the arts. Its employees give up to $5 million a year to charities.

None of that, of course, has silenced the company's critics, who insist the harm done by the company's products taints all else. ''At every opportunity, this industry has fought legislation that might have saved lives,'' asserts Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. ''Their executives have lied about what they knew. And to a degree unmatched by any other industry that makes products that can harm people, they have gone after children.''

WALLED OFF. For years, the sound and fury of the debate over the industry's products and tactics all but silenced the company and its executives. Bible became a corporate recluse as his company retreated into itself, creating a self-defensive culture to wall itself off from attack. The tobacco giant shut down virtually all outside communication. It was as if Philip Morris, one of the world's largest and most powerful corporations, with sales of $74.3 billion last year, had all but disappeared.

Even Philip Morris' own employees felt cut off--and ill-equipped to defend the company against attack. Although they collect some of the biggest paychecks in the industry and enjoy lavish benefits, employees responding to a massive in-house survey last year brought to the surface some surprising complaints. They made it clear they wanted senior managers to step up efforts to improve the company's image and to communicate more openly.

With its reputation--and its stock price--in shreds, Philip Morris recently embarked on an unprecedented campaign to rehabilitate its image. As part of that effort, it allowed BUSINESS WEEK behind the corporate veil for a series of candid interviews with managers of its far-flung operations.

The person who has had to confront the tough questions about smoking more directly than any other is the compact and combative man at the very top, Australian-born Geoffrey Bible. A thin-skinned accountant, Bible's tough-talking defense of tobacco quickly earned him the sobriquet ''the Crocodile Dundee of the tobacco industry.'' The company's many adversaries might dismiss him as a company mouthpiece motivated solely by greed. But a rare interview with the 62-year-old Bible, who has spent 31 years at Philip Morris, reveals a far more complicated figure.

If he had not been named CEO in 1994, a job for which Bible insists he had no ambitions, he likely would have retired by now. ''I've been working since I was 14,'' says Bible, whose first job was stamping dates on drivers' licenses for Australia's Transport Dept. ''I would have liked to retire at 60.''

Instead, Bible finds himself leading Philip Morris during the most tumultuous period of its 97-year history. Asked if he would have preferred to pilot the company in a less contentious era, Bible turns wistful. ''Life ain't like that, mate,'' he muses, between puffs on a Marlboro Light Menthol. '''Into each life some rain must fall. And too much has fallen in mine.' Ever hear that tune by the Ink Spots? It's the luck of the draw, isn't it?''

No one, however, could ever have anticipated the typhoon that has engulfed him and his embattled employees. In the last year, with litigation threats looming, Philip Morris stock has fallen by half, lopping $83.2 billion off its stock market value. That sum exceeds the total market cap of such companies as Mobil (MOB), Hewlett-Packard (HWP), and Eli Lilly (LLY). In Bible's own words, his beloved company has become ''the dog of the Dow.''

That's not something Bible will accept passively. In his years at Philip Morris, he has consistently shown a willingness to move aggressively to build up the company. As head of overseas tobacco operations from 1987 to 1990, he championed the purchase of local cigarette companies in former communist countries, a risky move that has allowed the company to build a commanding position in Eastern Europe.

Bible's most formative experiences, though, took place far from the corporate halls of Philip Morris. He speaks movingly of the five years he spent, from 1959 to 1964, working for a U.N. relief agency that helped Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. ''I've seen a lot of misery in my life,'' he says, recalling the thousands of people in extreme need of food, medical attention, shelter, and clothing he saw. ''If you see these little toddlers with flies all over their eyes, a rag over them and nothing else in 100-degree heat, you sort of get a real taste of what hunger is.''

WAGING WAR. It was something he never forgot. As a 1995 volunteer on a Citymeals-on-Wheels outing in New York, Bible heard that there was a waiting list of more than 1,000 homebound seniors. Within months, a $1.3 million check arrived from Philip Morris to wipe out the wait. Other sponsorships, though, have had to give way beneath the pressure of public opinion. Philip Morris supported women's professional tennis for almost three decades but gave it up a year ago. At an event attended by Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, and other tennis stars last November, Bible became so choked up as he recalled the company's crucial role in elevating the sport that he had to pause at the podium before finishing his remarks.

This glimpse into the private Bible hardly squares with the public image of a confrontational executive who has often posed for the annual report with a lit cigarette defiantly in hand. Initially as CEO, Bible waged war with critics, filing lawsuits against detractors, from television network ABC to the Food & Drug Administration. Then, in 1997, with his back to the wall, he sat at a negotiating table to hammer out the most controversial peace pact in business history. To the consternation of some of his own execs, Bible joined industrywide talks, agreeing to eliminate Philip Morris' venerable Marlboro Man from its ads and to pay an estimated $175 billion of the $368.5 billion settlement.

UPHILL BATTLE. Those first tentative steps out of the bunker didn't lead very far. The deal, announced with much fanfare, collapsed after 10 months, the victim of politics and public opposition. Bible now says he considers his efforts to gain a legislative settlement ''naive,'' though it did lead to the industry's subsequent $206 billion deal last November to settle lawsuits filed by 46 states to recoup smoking-related medical costs. Still, nearly every week brings more bad news: On Nov. 12, Philip Morris agreed to pay a record fine of $75,000 for failing to properly disclose the amount of money it spent to lobby New York lawmakers from 1996 to 1998.

Sitting in a sparse conference room on the 22nd floor of the company's New York headquarters, Bible clearly resents Philip Morris' pariah status. ''The company is filled with decent, hard-working people, no different than any other. We go to church. Our children go to school,'' he says. ''We need to do more to restore self-pride amongst our employees...and to have our place at the table like any corporation.''

He bristles at the widely held belief that Philip Morris executives lied about the dangers of tobacco. ''We are working all over the world in the most genuine, upright, forthright, honest fashion that we possibly can,'' insists Bible. ''I'm not aware of any lies whatsoever.''

Bible acknowledges that Philip Morris faces an uphill battle to regain the confidence of the public, a goal he hopes to achieve through the company's newly launched public relations campaign. Yet he plans no transforming moves to alter the company's portfolio of businesses, no plans for major acquisitions outside the company's core interests in tobacco, food, and beer. His strategy for Philip Morris has not changed: It is to fight hard and to win in the courtrooms. ''We will come out of it,'' he says. ''About that I have no doubt at all.''

Next to Bible, the man who has to worry most about the tobacco business is Michael E. Szymanczyk, the towering, six-foot-eight CEO of Philip Morris USA, the $5.2 billion domestic tobacco unit. It may well be the company's most difficult job, where professional strain and personal harassment come with the territory. When promoted in 1997, Szymanczyk became its fifth CEO in 10 years.

Szymanczyk, now 50, has had to develop a toughness that's almost unimaginable. Last year, just before Christmas, anti-smoking protesters showed up at his Connecticut home. They defaced an evergreen tree with empty cigarette packs, hung a mock wreath, festooned with cigarette butts, on the front door, and sang Christmas carols with crude antismoking lyrics. The incident upset his wife, but Szymanczyk says ''I can't be distracted by people like that. It's hard to believe someone would be so mean-spirited.''

He cannot recall the first time he got The Question, but when it comes up, usually in one of its gentler forms, he's ready. ''I don't want anybody to get sick,'' he says, ''but you can't live someone's life for him. You can't remove all the risks in life. That's what I believe.''

Szymanczyk had at least some idea of what he was getting into when he was offered a job at the tobacco company as senior vice-president for sales in 1990. His first instinct was to dismiss it out of hand. ''I wasn't so sure I wanted to go into the tobacco business,'' he recalls. ''It was a controversial business, and I just hadn't ever seen myself in it.'' A telephone call to a mentor, a businessman 20 years his senior, persuaded the former Procter & Gamble soap salesman to overcome his doubts. ''He told me: 'It's a tough business, but I've always thought those kinds of businesses need to have the very best people.'''

In attracting new talent to Philip Morris, Szymanczyk has to use a more creative approach. Rather than stage big campus recruiting drives, he and other top executives quietly cultivate relationships with likely candidates, inviting small groups to dinner. Szymanczyk puts a lot on the table: starting salaries of $40,000 and up, guaranteed bonuses, even tuition reimbursements. This year, Szymanczyk claims, 47% of those offered jobs took them--his best recruiting season ever.

Now the chief U.S. tobacco strategist is leading dramatic change at Philip Morris. After settling lawsuits with state governments a year ago, Philip Morris and indeed the industry have had to institute a radical shift in mind-set, from total noncompromise with antismoking forces to what Szymanczyk calls one of accommodation.

That shift is most apparent in the area of youth smoking. Szymanczyk has ended cigarette sampling and mail distribution of cigarettes, halted vending-machine sales, and banned mass-transit and outdoor ads. The company has also trained more than 30,000 retailers how to recognize fake I.D.s. All told, Philip Morris upped its investment in youth smoking-prevention programs tenfold this year to $100 million.

Distributing that money, however, has proved difficult. Recently, for example, Philip Morris awarded a $4.3 million grant to the National 4-H Council. Activists quickly mounted a lobbying effort to get state groups to reject the grants on the basis that Philip Morris' efforts are little more than public relations initiatives. More than half of them have since turned down the funding. ''Some of the stuff I see just amazes me,'' says Szymanczyk. ''We're trying to do things that are responsible, and you have people who say 'Don't take their money.'''

That emphasis on preventing kids from lighting up--along with rapidly escalating cigarette prices--has meant that Szymanczyk is managing an ever-shrinking business. For nearly two decades now, the U.S. market has been declining by 1% to 2% a year. In 1999, due to price hikes averaging 75 cents on a $2.35 pack to cover the costs of the industry's settlement, cigarettes sales will fall nearly 10%, the highest single drop ever.

Philip Morris, however, has shown it can be successful in a declining business. Last year, with industry shipments down 4.6%, the company's stable of brands attained a record 49.4% share. This year, its share is expected to climb to just over 50%. Marlboro alone will account for one of every three cigarettes sold in the U.S. But as the company pays hefty settlement charges, doling out $3.4 billion last year alone, U.S. profit margins have plunged--to 9.7%, down from 33.8% in 1996. ''Our objective is to take this business and to produce cash for the company to invest,'' says Szymanczyk. ''Long term, who knows what we'll be as a company?''

The man who will take up the slack for Szymanczyk is German-born Paul W. Hendrys. As tall and lanky as his American counterpart, Hendrys is chief executive of Philip Morris International Inc. At 52, he is a passionate consumer of his company's products, having smoked since 19. Yet, Hendrys says, he has quit some 20 times over the years, often for a few weeks or months, before restarting.

''Look,'' he says, in clipped, German-accented English, ''I have always had the intention to prove to myself that it's easy for me to quit. So very often when I go on vacation, I say: 'Look, I won't smoke at all.' So I quit for a couple of weeks, and then I'm back.'' Some might see in that pattern proof of cigarettes' capacity to addict, but not Hendrys. He believes the benefits of smoking, the pleasure he gains from it, and the stress it relieves, outweigh the risks.

OVERSEAS GROWTH. It's not surprising that Hendrys feels some stress. As U.S. markets shrink, overseas markets have become the critical avenue for growth. The company has only a 14% share outside the U.S., where higher percentages of people smoke, where nonsmokers are far more tolerant of the habit, where opposition is less organized, and--most important--where consumers are less litigious.

To exploit those markets, Hendrys has been refining a strategy he hit on almost 20 years ago, when he joined the company as a regional-sales director in Germany. Back then he used a savvy maneuver to outflank Reemtsa, his former employer: When Reemtsa tried to spark a price war by lowering the cost of West, its Marlboro-lookalike brand, Philip Morris introduced its L&M brand as the cheaper alternative. The move protected Marlboro's premium pricing, while smashing competition at the lower end. It also helped push Philip Morris' market share in Germany, the largest European smoking market by far, to 41%, up from just 10% in 1980.

Now, Hendrys' primary objective is to duplicate that success throughout the world as a way of offsetting the decline in smoking in the U.S. ''The American market is a big market, but we're talking here about a world market of 5.2 trillion cigarettes,'' he says, at international headquarters in Rye Brook, N.Y. ''And I tell you, we will take our fair share.''

Could anything stop Philip Morris' worldwide campaign? Protective governments remain a problem, and there is always the possibility that a strong antismoking movement could emerge. Hendrys is trying to use the experience in the U.S. to head off such a movement. The company now has 83 youth prevention programs in 55 countries outside the U.S., sometimes over the opposition of local competitors. ''We don't want kids to smoke because it exposes us to attack as an industry,'' says Hendrys.

It's also true, though, that Philip Morris dominates the high end of the market with its premium brands, cushioning it against any drop-off in smoking by kids. And if kids don't start smoking, where will Philip Morris get its future customers? Hendrys figures he can keep stealing share in a fragmented global marketplace.

The huge controversy over tobacco has obscured the Philip Morris corporate identity. Most people, for example, have no idea that the company owns Kraft Foods, the largest food company in the U.S. and the second-largest in the world, respected if not feared by rivals for its size, scale, and breadth. Called by some analysts the ''underappreciated asset'' of Philip Morris, Kraft is an operation whose stock market value alone is placed at $22 a share by Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. If that's true, with Philip Morris trading at around $26 a share, investors can buy the world's largest cigarette company and one of the largest beer companies for just four bucks.

As a 22-year veteran at Kraft Foods Inc., Robert A. Eckert has long evaded the center of the tobacco storm. But the thin-as-a-rail CEO, like nearly everyone else at Philip Morris, has been battered by its crosswinds. So Eckert, a Chicago-born nonsmoker with Midwestern values and tastes, has developed a personal strategy for handling the attacks. ''When you're at a cocktail party or some social event and somebody gets on the anti-Philip Morris bandwagon,'' says the 45-year-old executive, ''I usually take a few minutes and do a little time-out. Then, I start by acknowledging that Philip Morris companies make risky products.''

Does it work? Like many at Philip Morris, Eckert's defense of his company's core product sounds curiously rehearsed. ''Tobacco,'' he says, ''is a risky product. Beer is a risky product. There are foods [made by Kraft] that are risky products. I think that adults are wise enough to make decisions about those things. I am concerned about a society that might restrict or restrain those choices. You know, today it's tobacco. Tomorrow, maybe it's beer. The next day, it might be hot dogs,'' he says earnestly. ''I think I'm capable of deciding whether or not I want to eat a hot dog.''

That reasoning, of course, ignores the fact that hot dogs are not actually addictive. And apparently, not everyone at Kraft felt comfortable making such arguments after Philip Morris acquired the company in 1988. But unlike some of his co-workers, whose values wouldn't allow them to stay, Eckert stuck it out. At the time, he was vice-president for marketing and grocery products, the unit that now sells 1.75 million boxes of macaroni and cheese a day. ''We were partnering with a company which had a good history of building businesses and supporting the community,'' he says. ''So if somebody's going to own Kraft, I'd just as soon it be Philip Morris. They understand how things work. They're supportive of us.'' He says he treats Philip Morris the same way he would treat a board of directors.

WANTED: PATIENCE. Yet, he admits, the tobacco company's notoriety has been felt at the food company. An antitobacco group is waging a boycott of Kraft brands, and this year, activists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Wisconsin staged protests when Kraft tried to recruit on those campuses. Worse, the faltering stock price has left many of the options Kraft executives received in the past four years well under water. In an era when the haves and have-nots of Corporate America are defined by whether they are in or out of the option pool, it is not a trivial concern.

The option issue is especially frustrating for Kraft execs because their performance has been stellar by any measure. With a relentless focus on cost reduction and product innovation, Eckert's Kraft now boasts the strongest volume growth in the food industry and the highest profit margins. It dominates almost every market it enters.

With that kind of performance, in the longest bull market in history, most executives and many managers would be sitting on paper gains in the millions of dollars. Instead, many of their stock options are almost worthless. Eckert has had to ask his managers to be patient and to remind them that, in the past 10 years at least, the stock's total returns have been strong. ''I get anxious when the stock is undervalued,'' he admits, ''but I also have a longer-term perspective on this. We're hitched to a stock that is depressed because of what's going on [with] tobacco. You have to be patient.'' So far, his reassurances have apparently satisfied many key executives--as has the company's recent decision to pay thousands of managers quarterly dividends on unexercised stock options.

One of the Philip Morris units that has been, in the words of Chief Operating Officer William H. Webb, in the ''casualty ward'' has been Miller Brewing. Mediocre advertising campaigns and lackluster marketing have caused Miller to lose market share in recent years. Bible, none too happy, engineered a change in management at Miller earlier this year, in hopes of reversing the decline. He picked an accomplished company troubleshooter in John D. Bowlin, an engaging and gregarious New Jersey-bred food executive to head the beer company.

Bowlin, too, has had to grapple with the controversy in his sister unit. He still vividly recalls one of the first instances. It was 1991 and he had been president of Oscar Mayer Foods Corp. for little more than a month when a reporter from the local Madison newspaper came to interview him.

''How do you like working for a company that kills people?'' the reporter asked.

''I don't accept the premise of the question,'' Bowlin said. ''I'm proud to work for Philip Morris.''

''But you didn't answer my question,'' the reporter pressed.
''Let me make myself clear. I don't accept the premise of that question.''

A public relations person steered the conversation in another direction, and when the story appeared the next day, the journalist reported that Bowlin replied tersely to the question, ''What's it like to work for Philip Morris, a maker of tobacco products?''

FUTURE PRESSURE? Angry, Bowlin pondered making a complaint but decided against it. ''I've never been burnt like the tobacco guys,'' he says. ''But you get a bad taste in your mouth. So now you're on your guard. You say: 'Screw it. No more interviews if this is how we're gonna get treated.'''

Bowlin got over it. But the experience gave him a sense of the grueling pressure his colleagues face daily on the tobacco side--a part of the business that he has never worked for. And as the head of a unit that markets another controversial product, Bowlin knows that at some point he could find himself caught in a similar firestorm of public outrage.

A handsome man of 48, Bowlin was marketing director of Ronzoni pasta at General Foods Corp. when it was acquired in 1985 by Philip Morris. During his years in management, Bowlin says, he has acquired the same single-mindedness found in many of the company's tobacco execs. ''Thank God they are tough,'' he says. ''A third of the so-called activists out there won't settle until the industry's dead, and then they'll turn their attention to the next industry.''

That, thinks Bowlin, could very well be his business. Miller will sell $4.3 billion worth of beer this year, second only to Anheuser-Busch Cos. in the U.S. Already, Bowlin is finding himself under pressure from activist groups and government agencies concerned with underage drinking, drunk driving, binge drinking on college campuses, and alcoholism. At the same time, he's under opposing pressure to rejuvenate the Miller brands and reverse a downturn in share.

As the father of two sons, 17 and 20, he faces similar conflicts in his private life. He believes that his company must act as a ''responsible corporate citizen,'' but he also believes that he must behave as a responsible parent. ''I find the best test is to look in the mirror,'' he says. ''When both roles are aligned, in terms of what I should do as a business professional and what I should do as a parent, I think I've got a pretty damn good decision.''

He sees no contradiction in the fact that he is a strict disciplinarian when it comes to his sons. ''I don't want them to drink,'' says Bowlin flatly. ''I sure as hell don't want them to drink and drive...I have zero tolerance.'' He also says that he doesn't want his sons to smoke. ''I don't think it's healthy for them. That's my job as a parent. That's not the government's job.''

To some extent, he also thinks it's Philip Morris' job. Over the years, Miller, like its competitors, has been lambasted for marketing efforts that critics say appeal to teenagers. But the brewer now sponsors a number of programs to combat underage drinking, from training sessions for bartenders to a ''Think When You Drink'' Web site. ''We do this not because of the law,'' says Bowlin, ''but because it's the right thing to do.''

In companies overwhelmed by litigation and the threat of bankruptcy, lawyers become all-powerful figures. Few have ever been more powerful than Murray H. Bring, 64, a onetime outside counsel for Philip Morris who in 1987 became the company's chief legal strategist and guardian of its assets. His rise to vice-chairman under Bible underscored both his formidable legal skills and the fact that litigation had become a central corporate focus. With every courtroom victory and defeat, the craggy-faced Bring has ridden the emotional roller-coaster with Bible and his beleaguered employees. It is a ride that never seems to end.

From the age of 10, Bring dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Attracted by ''the logic of the law,'' he was the first in his family to go to college, gaining his law degree from New York University, where he was editor of the Law Review. By any standard, he has had an enviable 40-year career in law, a stretch that has included a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, with whom he struck a close and enduring relationship, a stint with the Kennedy Administration's Justice Dept. and State Dept., and a senior partnership at Washington's Arnold & Porter, where he first came into contact with Philip Morris.

Years as a defense lawyer and the intellectual challenge of tobacco litigation have made him an unreconstructed advocate for the industry. Bring doesn't bother with the conciliatory gestures many of his Philip Morris colleagues have lately adopted. Twelve years of bruising legal battles have left him as pugnacious as ever. ''When I entered the legal profession,'' he says, ''it really was a profession. You didn't go into it to make a lot of money because you couldn't. Now you have plaintiff's attorneys who are flying around in their own Gulfstreams and collecting billion-dollar fees, which I find quite disgusting.''

Like most at the company, he believes the attacks on the company are largely motivated by greed. Unlike many others, though, he doesn't hesitate to say so. As far as he's concerned, the industry's defense is quite simple. ''Anybody who smokes is aware of the risks involved and makes an informed choice,'' says Bring. ''It's like anything else in your lifestyle: hang-gliding, using a snowmobile, or eating fatty foods.''

That is the logic Bring used in a landmark 1988 case against Rose Cipollone, who had suffered a wrenching, painful death from cancer. ''Nobody forced Mrs. Cipollone to smoke,'' he says. ''In fact, this was a woman who by her own testimony used to go to church every Sunday and say novenas in the hope that she wouldn't get lung cancer.'' Philip Morris won the case, and Bring, who sat in the front row of the Newark courtroom every day watching his lawyers defend the company, was thrilled. ''I thought that might very well have been the end of the smoking litigation, which shows how naive I was.''

His complacency disappeared in February, 1994, when ABC's Day One news program alleged that tobacco companies manipulated the levels of nicotine in cigarettes to addict smokers. ''I'll never forget watching that program,'' Bring says. ''I got so incensed that I immediately called up one of our outside lawyers and said I want to bring a libel suit.''

Philip Morris, with the enthusiastic support of Bible, sued the network and won. ABC retracted the allegation, publicly apologized to Philip Morris, and paid the company's legal fees. In Bring's conference room, he still displays a victory memento: a copy of ABC'S $3 million check, along with a miniature of the full-page ad the company ran in newspapers across the country with the headline ''Apology Accepted.''

Before that apology was offered, however, the Food & Drug Administration sought to regulate the industry. Congress rounded up the industry's chief executives, who lined up like guilty cons with raised hands to testify that tobacco was not addictive. The public was outraged by what it saw as sheer duplicity. Lawsuits began piling up in courts everywhere, ignited by leaked internal documents and whistleblowers such as former tobacco-exec Jeffrey Wigand, whose appearance on 60 Minutes formed the basis for the current movie The Insider.

Even a hard-liner like Bring thinks the industry brought some of its woes on itself with its aggressive stance. ''We probably made some mistakes in not reaching out to people earlier and trying to engage in a dialogue with our critics,'' he says now. ''It's understandable. We were constantly under attack. There was sort of a siege mentality. People on both sides just kept sharpening their spears.''

What bothers him most is the widely held perception that Philip Morris and its tobacco allies engaged in a massive fraud and deception. ''I know that isn't true,'' Bring says. ''If everybody in the United States could spend five minutes talking to Geoff Bible, they would realize that the things they are reading are not true. Here's a guy of total integrity, total honesty.''

In every court, but especially the court of public opinion, Bible and his company continue to fight an image deeply embedded in the public consciousness. The picture, repeated again and again in the movie The Insider, is that of the seven tobacco chieftains at a Congressional hearing, swearing to tell the truth.

It is a huge albatross, one that Bible struggles to explain away. ''The word 'lie,' I think, first came out in the 1994 congressional hearings,'' says Bible, ''where they asked each of the CEOs if they thought cigarettes were addictive. Each answered with his own personal opinion. They tried to fabricate that into the industry is lying about the properties of cigarettes. That is the birth of the tirade against us for being liars. I think it is unfair.''

Still, even Philip Morris' new Web site conceded in October that ''cigarette smoking is addictive, as that term is most commonly used today.'' So why did William I. Campbell of Philip Morris USA testify to Congress that tobacco was not addictive? Bible and his cohorts have a ready explanation--though one that falls back on the sort of legalistic hairsplitting that has made the public mistrustful. They say that Campbell and the other executives were bullied into yes-or-no answers and based their responses on the ''pharmacological'' definition of addiction.

Will such distinctions stand up on the far-off Judgment Day that Bible speaks of? That's for him and his conscience to decide. What's clear, however, is that so far they haven't swayed many people in the here and now.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Illinois on Tuesday decided to restore imposed in 2003 guilty verdict of Philip Morris USA company (PM, division Altria Group) on misleading consumers regarding the use in advertising such terms as "light cigarettes" and "low-tar". Court reinstated the past court's decision that the company must pay a fine and compensation of $ 10.1 billion dollars to the plaintiffs of this case.

Lawsuit against the PM was filed in Illinois in 2000 on behalf of 1.4 million people which accused the company in misleading smokers about the harm of "light" and lower tar cigarettes (Tobacco companies began selling "light," "mild," or "low tar" cigarettes in the 1970s that they marketed as less harmful because they had ventilated filters and less nicotine). In 2003, the court found the company's guilty and sentenced it to pay 10.1 billion dollars, however, the court's decision was overturned in 2005 by the Supreme Court of the State, which heeded on cigarette manufacturer arguments about the use of "light," "mild," or "low tar" inscriptions which were allowed by U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

A 2005 $10.1 billion lawsuit against tobacco company Philip Morris USA is apparently headed back to court. A three-judge panel of the Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon, Illinois has unanimously ruled to remand the case to the trial court for further, unspecified proceedings.

The class action, which includes more than 1 million people as plaintiffs, centers on Philip Morris USA’s “light” and “low tar” cigarettes; the plaintiffs claim that the company misled consumers into believing that these cigarettes were safer than others. Indeed, the lawsuit claims that the tobacco company knew but did not inform the public that tar used in light cigarettes was actually more harmful than that used in regular cigarettes.

The trial judge in the original action found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded damages of $10.1 billion, but the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the decision; it found that the the tobacco company had been marketing its products under Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that permitted the labeling of “low tar” and “light” cigarettes as such — whether the terms were misleading was not reached by the court. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. Accordingly, the trial court dismissed the case on December 18, 2006 pursuant to directions from the appellate court.

But then in December 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Maine plaintiffs seeking to use state consumer protection laws in a similar lawsuit against “light” and “low tar” cigarette manufacturers. The Supreme Court found that the FTC had never approved the use of such terms, and in fact, the FTC denied doing so.

With this decision in hand, Korein Tillery, the law firm behind the $10.1 billion Illinois lawsuit, filed an appeal on December 18, 2008 asking the Fifth District Appellate Court to review the case, alleging that the Illinois Supreme Court wrongly dismissed the case in light of the later U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Maine plaintiffs. The defendants had argued that this appeal was untimely, but the appellate court found that it was filed within the two-year statute of limitations and sent the case back to the trial court “for further proceedings.”

And that’s where we are now. Philip Morris attorneys, who can still appeal this most recent order to the Illinois Supreme Court, maintain that the ruling didn’t reopen the case, but that the decision was limited to whether the plaintiffs had filed a timely appeal. Whether the appellate panel even has the authority to reopen such a case will likely be hotly disputed in the coming proceedings.

On behalf of the plaintiffs, attorney Stephen Tillery has been quoted as saying his law firm is “eager to return to the courtroom to seek the justice our clients deserve”.

Imperial Tobacco, the company behind brands including Lambert & Butler and Golden Virginia, said Labour plans to raise at least 150m by taxing companies according to market share amounted to an attack on a legitimate business sector.

A spokesman for the company said: "The idea ... is totally unwarranted and unjust, and should be dismissed immediately.

Imperial is already one of the largest contributors of tax to the UK government in the FTSE 100, contributing billions of pounds in tax and excise every year. The UK tobacco industry is subject to a punitively high rate of excise, meaning the average total tax take on a pack of cigarettes is 86%.

"The idea put forward today fails to acknowledge the wider contribution made by Imperial to society, and will place further pressure on jobs and livelihoods," the spokesman said. "Earlier this year we announced the closure of our Nottingham cigarette factory, citing in part the impact of excessive tobacco regulation and taxation."

Miliband told delegates at the annual party conference in Manchester that it was fair to impose additional costs on an industry that makes "soaring profits on the back of ill health".

The industry argues that it contributes 12.3bn a year to the exchequer, while the costs of smoking to the NHS are estimated at between 2.7bn and 5.2bn.

The industry trade body, the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, rejected the idea. Giles Roca, director general, said: "This anti-business idea is illogical and ignores a major cause of lost tobacco tax, the illegal market."

"Rather than coming up with ways to attack a legitimate UK business sector, selling a legal product which already contributes 12.3bn per year in tax, the Labour party should be thinking of how to claw back the billions in revenue the government loses through sales of illegal tobacco in the UK. The latest HM Revenue & Customs data shows that the illegal market cost up to 2.9bn in 2012-13".

The TMA represents companies including the FTSE 100's British American Tobacco and Imperial, whose share prices were down more than the wider market following Milband's comments, by 1.7% and 1.6% respectively.

David Hayes, an analyst in the London office of the Japanese bank Nomura, said that Imperial and Japan Tobacco International would be hardest hit by Labour's plan because between them they controlled about 85% of the UK market.

"It is not insignificant. The obvious solution for companies is likely to be a pass-on of the cost through higher prices, so you would expect the consumer to ultimately bear the cost".

Analysts at Goldman Sachs warned in a note that Labour's plan might be less effective than Labour intended: "For instance, could lower tobacco prices to reduce profits in the UK, and compensate by raising prices more significantly in other markets to make up the shortfall".

Today’s deep-discounted price points for cigarettes are already being addressed by the adoption of fiscal measures such as tax stamps, where tax paid stamps would be applied to every pack for sale in the European Union.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue is also looking at other measures such as installing CCTV cameras inside the factories to monitor the process of stamp application and cigarette withdrawals to prevent leakages.

The impact of these measures on tax administration should first be evaluated before implementing minimum selling prices.

The imposition of minimum selling prices on cigarettes does not address the principal issue of tax evasion, but merely its symptom which is very low price points of cigarettes in the market.

If today a handful of cigarette manufacturers are not being monitored closely enough to prevent leakages, how could it be possible for enforcement to cover more than 700,000 stores nationwide that sell cigarettes?

Also the idea to give powers to other agencies such as the national police to enforce is a real concern, as corrupt elements in the force could use it as a way to extort funds from small business people, under threat of fines or arrest.

Minimum selling prices would only aggravate low prices since tax evaders would merely continue selling illicit cigarettes to the trade at very low prices, whereas compliant taxpayers would abide with mandated minimum selling prices. This distorts the business environment even more.

With minimum selling prices, overall consumption of cigarettes will not diminish and government’s revenues would suffer also as consumption shifts in favor of illicit products.

People would still be able to get their cheap cigarettes nationwide, except that these products would be illicit versions that do not pay tax.

If there is strict enforcement of the new tax stamps, at every factory, and on every cigarette making machine, then errant manufacturers will no longer be able to subsidize their legal sales with illegal non tax-paid production.

Market forces will then ensure that prices rise at the retail level as manufacturers are forced to recoup their cost to them of the taxes per pack they are no longer able to evade at their factory site.

It should also be noted that internationally. minimum prices have been found to be illegal, or at the very least ineffective.

The European Union, in a decision in 2010, banned the setting of a minimum price for cigarettes in Austria, Ireland, and France. The EU said such undermined the freedom of manufacturers and importers to determine the maximum retail selling price of their products and, correspondingly, free competition.

Further, the EU stated that fiscal legislation is an important and effective instrument for discouraging consumption of tobacco products. Therefore, for the protection of public health, the objective of ensuring that a high price level is fixed for those products may adequately be attained by increased taxation, with the excise duty increase, sooner or later, being reflected in an increase in the retail selling price.

European Union has set a minimum price for cigarette sales since 2010. However since that time illicit cigarette sales have flourished by selling below this, legal price barrier. Today, surveys indicate that illegal cigarettes have grown to almost 40 percent of the entire market, denying the government billions in lost tax revenue. This is primarily because there is no sufficient enforcement at retail to monitor and police the law. The growth of the illicit cigarettes trade has fostered corruption, which has recently seen the arrest of dozens of EU Customs officers who are the subject of accusations regarding illicit cigarette syndicates operating in the country.

An easyjet flight attendant masterminded a £200,000 tobacco smuggling ring - using staff discount to pay for scores of continental 'ciggie runs'. Cabin manager Dennis Connolly recruited pals as mules - including Easyjet stewardess Adele Jenkinson - in one of the biggest conspiracies of its kind. Desperate to avoid detection, the rogue airline staff swapped information about the movements of customs officers before jetting out to Spain and Portugal on day trips and short breaks.

Flying out to Faro, Malaga and Alicante with near-empty suitcases, the gang stocked up on cheap cigarettes before flying back to the UK. The cigarettes could be sold cheaply and profitably on the black market because duty had not been paid on them.

In all, Connolly organised up to 150 trips for himself and other conspirators, bringing in 1,000kg of tobacco and evading £179,773 in taxes for three years.

The 43-year-old has now been jailed for 21 months at Manchester Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to evade duty and possessing criminal property. His defence said that having already lost his career and home, jail would be 'catastrophic' for him.

The court heard Connolly, of Hawkshead Street, Southport, joined easyJet in 1999, and had enjoyed an unblemished career.

However, in 2007 his boyfriend died of pancreatic cancer and grief-stricken Connolly gambled away a £90,000 life insurance payout playing virtual roulette. He ran up debts, and was approached by a pal who suggested he set up a contraband tobacco racket.

Hereford Magistrates heard that the haul of non-duty paid, smuggled, and fake foreign labelled cigarettes seized at European Fresh Foods, Eign Gate, was worth around £13,000 at street value.

Retailer Mohammed Bakhtyer admitted having the illicit tobacco to sell to receive a four month suspended prison sentence. He was also ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,169 in costs.

All the seized cigarettes will be destroyed.

The court heard that during the raid, earlier this year, the cigarettes were initially uncovered as hidden in a secret compartment under the shop counter and inside crates of soft drinks.

But the finding of a false wall built into the shop's stock room revealed a further 4,000 packets for sale.

Speaking after the case, Mike Pigrem, Herefordshire Council’s head of trading standards and licensing, said the cigarettes found

were of “dubious” quality with the potential to cause health problems potentially far worse than smoking legal tobacco.

Comments

petet25: The government claim innocent shops are losing trade due to "illegal" tobacco sales.... False. I spoke to tobacco shop owners who reported making more on packets on mints than tobacco/cigarettes. They stated that per pack of 20 sold, they make around 15p.... Nowhere near enough to keep a business afloat.

The government lose out on tax revenue? Yes and no. They spend millions on campaigns to get people to stop smoking.... So the money gained in taxing cigarettes is poured into getting people to stop smoking.

While the government heavily tax cigarettes/tobacco, smokers will always try to find a cheap deal... Even if it means going overseas and brining back a vast amount. The government should lower taxes so illegal tobacco sales will no longer be a thing.

Did you know that this new thing with sniffer dogs is often funded by the big tobacco company's? Hull council recently refused an offer where a tobacco giant offered to pay for sniffer dogs and surveillance to stop illegal sales....

I dont even smoke myself but can see what is happening.

The government have tried to screw smokers over for years, now people wont stand for it and the government are making up sob story's to make out that innocent businesses are paying the price. Plus buying illegal tobacco damages smokers health further than legit cigs.

Actually the illegal tobacco sales consist of "duty free" imports that have been produced by British tobacco company's so are no more dangerous than the same brands that can be bought at places like tescos.

Hilary Jones: Petet: People addicted to tobacco will smoke, however much it costs, but cheaper fags will make it easier to start or smoke more. Therefore reducing the tax take will do nobody any good, and it will reduce the amount of money available to treat the resulting lung diseases.

Shops make next to no profit on a packet of fags - that's excellent - but of course they sell them as a loss leader to bring in

the trade in mints & pop. They are NOT innocent, even less so when they try to defraud the taxman, thus reducing the amount of money available to treat the resulting lung diseases.

And "duty-free" illegal imports? Well, all that proves is that the tobacco companies are the villains here, because they make huge profits out of those the resulting lung diseases.

petet25: Surprised considering my points were based on facts and figures where evidence was named to prove my points. Seems like we have quite a few pro government sheep here.

When will people realise that heft tax is to line the governments pockets with no regard for anyone else?

Just look at pubs, record numbers closing each week. As a camra member, I see the main factor is increased taxes on drinks each year which has hit pubs hard. People prefer to just pick up beer from supermarkets that sell it as a loss leader for cheaper.

Wetherspoons have held several tax reduced days where sales have increased, thus the government gain more money overall.

What about the FOBT (fixed odd betting terminals) in bookmakers? The government approved these initially on probation. Years later after lives have been ruined by those machines they admit they got it wrong, and certain reviews are happening.

If all under the counter tobacco sales stopped, what would happen? Its cheap enough to get a flight to Belgium and pick up unlimited tobacco/cigarettes... Then it will be back to the days of people knowing a man in a pub who sells it cheap.

petet25: Hilary... A few points based on what you mentioned....

People will smoke regardless of the price. Price plays no part in defining weather people smoke or not.

People know the risks, there is simply no proof that cheaper cigs = more smokers.... Simply because that theory has never been tested. Its simply a government guess.

Reducing the tax indeed would work. See it this way....

Someone can go to belgium/france/poland anywhere like that and buy tobacco and cigarettes for cheap. Plus they can bring an unlimited amount back.

In Belgium a 50g pouch of golden Virginia costs just £6, sometimes even less. In a shop here it costs nearly £20. Many smokers do a weekend flight, stock up with 50 pouches. Which saves them around £400, and they get a nice few days away. The government get 0p and smokers get their tobacco. If the government reduced taxes, it would not be as worthwhile.

Lung diseases? If you look at actual nhs figures you will see that the amount the government currently get from cigarette/tobacco taxes is more than it costs to treat smoking related illnesses. So the amount of people who buy legit, is still enough to fund extra things.

The government cant have it both ways. If all smokers gave up, where would the lost revenue come from? Blatantly more council cuts and an increase in the tax people pay out of their wages.

Well yes... Tobacco company's make huge amounts of money.

Bottom line is the government need to change things. If they did... This wouldn't be a problem, nor would weekend trips exclusively for duty free tobacco.

Look at the pub trade as I mention above....they were trigger happy to increase taxes on alcohol and screw over pub owners....now what? Home brewing and supermarket cheap alcohol sales have increased, while more than 50 pubs close nationwide each week leaving many people out of work.

Money spent on tobacco often reduces resources available for basic necessities, such as nutrition, health care, and education. These opportunity costs impose a significant burden on tobacco users and their families, burying many of them in a vicious cycle of poverty that can span generations.

The many countries and the wide range of economic situations make Europe a continent with a wide range of prices. The retail price of a pack of cigarettes varies among and within nations. Cigarette prices are influenced by many factors, including the tobacco market structure and tobacco tax system. Significant price differentials may exist between so-called premium cigarette brands and economy brands, a result of a tobacco industry strategy to target specific segments of the population, or of the tax structure favoring ad-valorem over specific tax.

Here are the prices are for a 20 piece pack of Marlboro with taxes included for all countries of Europe. The cigarette prices are in euros and US dollars and are of course approximate.

Here you can see a state-by-state breakdown of a price of a pack cigarettes in a tobacco shops in each state in 2013, 2012 and in 2011. Its include more than one year’s data to give a better overall picture of the decease in the price of a pack of cigarettes in the US.

State

Price of a pack of cigarettes in the USA

2011

2012

2013

2014

Kentucky

$ 4.97

$ 6.56

$ 4.96

$ 5.40

North Dakota

$ 4.91

$ 5.03

$ 5.04

$ 5.33

West Virginia

$ 4.74

$ 4.84

$ 5.07

$ 5.43

Oklahoma

$ 6.19

$ 5.24

$ 5.19

$ 6.29

Idaho

$ 4.99

$ 5.11

$ 5.25

$ 5.41

Missouri

$ 5.58

$ 5.87

$ 5.25

$ 5.25

Louisiana

$ 4.82

$ 5.33

$ 6.50

$ 5.44

Oregon

$ 5.59

$ 5.35

$ 5.74

$ 5.69

Wyoming

$ 5.50

$ 5.21

$ 5.37

$ 5.41

Mississippi

$ 5.75

$ 5.55

$ 5.45

$ 6.34

Nevada

$ 5.93

$ 6.04

$ 5.50

$ 6.15

South Carolina

$ 5.42

$ 6.25

$ 5.55

$ 5.58

Colorado

$ 5.96

$ 5.59

$ 5.19

$ 5.65

Indiana

$ 5.50

$ 5.56

$ 5.77

$ 5.97

Alabama

$ 5.27

$ 5.18

$ 5.80

$ 5.51

Virginia

$ 5.55

$ 5.43

$ 5.81

$ 5.25

Ohio

$ 6.22

$ 5.67

$ 5.88

$ 6.03

Tennessee

$ 5.56

$ 4.91

$ 5.89

$ 5.30

Georgia

$ 5.29

$ 5.93

$ 5.93

$ 6.39

Minnesota

$ 6.53

$ 5.96

$ 5.95

$ 8.10

Florida

$ 6.08

$ 6.29

$ 6.29

$ 6.30

Delaware

$ 6.00

$ 6.10

$ 6.00

$ 6.35

North Carolina

$ 5.51

$ 5.14

$ 6.03

$ 5.45

Nebraska

$ 5.55

$ 5.99

$ 6.09

$ 6.23

Kansas

$ 6.00

$ 6.47

$ 6.21

$ 5.83

Montana

$ 5.99

$ 6.12

$ 6.25

$ 6.46

Arkansas

$ 5.96

$ 7.10

$ 6.50

$ 6.07

New Hampshire

$ 5.87

$ 4.86

$ 6.59

$ 6.44

Utah

$ 7.22

$ 6.88

$ 6.64

$ 6.89

California

$ 5.19

$ 6.45

$ 6.45

$ 5.89

South Dakota

$ 6.03

$ 6.82

$ 6.77

$ 6.08

New Mexico

$ 6.88

$ 6.69

$ 6.91

$ 7.67

Michigan

$ 6.90

$ 6.50

$ 6.50

$ 8.00

Pennsylvania

$ 6.80

$ 6.93

$ 6.95

$ 6.85

Maine

$ 7.97

$ 6.97

$ 7.12

$ 7.37

Texas

$ 6.07

$ 6.89

$ 7.24

$ 6.69

Iowa

$ 6.00

$ 7.52

$ 7.25

$ 6.29

D.C.

$ 7.99

$ 8.27

$ 7.89

$ 7.99

Maryland

$ 6.70

$ 6.53

$ 7.93

$ 7.75

Wisconsin

$ 8.11

$ 7.98

$ 8.11

$ 8.82

Washington

$ 9.89

$ 8.98

$ 8.31

$ 9.30

New Jersey

$ 8.35

$ 8.00

$ 8.55

$ 8.20

Massachusetts

$ 8.30

$ 8.49

$ 8.77

$ 9.95

Connecticut

$ 8.25

$ 8.85

$ 9.30

$ 9.52

Vermont

$ 8.23

$ 7.60

$ 9.52

$ 9.62

Rhode Island

$ 8.60

$ 8.16

$ 9.56

$ 8.95

Alaska

$ 9.14

$ 9.39

$ 9.59

$ 9.79

Arizona

$ 6.87

$ 7.46

$ 9.65

$ 8.05

Hawaii

$ 9.73

$ 10.22

$ 9.68

$ 9.55

Illinois

$ 9.67

$10.25

$ 11.59

$ 11.50

New York

$ 11.90

$ 12.50

$ 14.50

$ 12.85

As you can see the price ranges from $ 12.85 in New York to $ 5.25 in Missouri.